Arctic Offroad Forums

Denali Borough Assembly considers state recreation area

By Stefan Milkowski
Staff Writer
Published December 19, 2006
Posted in Local, News

The Denali Borough Assembly will take a closer look at a resolution calling for the creation of a state recreation area along the Stampede Road north of Healy.

The resolution was introduced at an assembly meeting last week and generated significant interest, Denali Borough Mayor David Talerico said Friday. Now the borough will research the process of forming a recreation area, discuss the idea with the state Department of Natural Resources and gather input from the public. Talerico said the resolution will be on the assembly’s Jan. 10 meeting agenda.

The resolution, as it’s written now, calls on the state to designate a recreation area on a chunk of land west of Eightmile Lake — a spot along the Stampede Road — and bordered on three sides by Denali National Park and Preserve.

The move comes as the state Department of Transportation is proposing to upgrade a trail extending from the road. Assemblyman David Evans, who originally pitched the idea for the state recreation area, said last week that his proposal wasn’t in conflict with the DOT plan and that the increased management would allow the road to be upgraded without resulting in misuse of the land.

Other local residents supportive of the resolution are still opposed to upgrading the road.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Will Forsberg, director of the local Panguingue Creek Homeowners’ Association, of the resolution. “It’s time to do something with that piece of land there, not run willy-nilly in there with this dirt road.”

Talerico said there seemed to be a lot of support for keeping the area open to current uses, including off-highway vehicle use, dog mushing, skiing and other outdoor activities.

The DOT plan would allow those uses to continue, and the proposed resolution asks that they be allowed if the location became a state recreation area.

Staff writer Stefan Milkowski may be reached at 459-7577 or smilkowski@newsminer.com.

I think we should put our names in the hat for input on design for this park if it were to come to fruition. If they start charging for access, we may get discounts, and it puts our name out there as more than just a group of individuals who wheel.

Thanks for the info Dusty!

Staff writer for who???

well done Dusty, thanks for the post. We should move this over to open, once Dusty puts in any further input. I wish Dusty would just come over to the prospect status...

It was in the Daily [edit]Miner[/edit] today. I think Arctic should definately put there $0.02 in on this. It would be great to have a place year round. It would also open up the opportunity to have a place to possibly have a future M&G here. ?????

I would make a point to have someone repressent at this meeting:
"Talerico said the resolution will be on the assembly’s Jan. 10 meeting agenda."

ChevyKev Wrote:Staff writer for who???

Fairbanks Daily News Minus I think...

let's spin up a committee of folks to attend this today!
Who can make it, and wants to speak for AO?

I just got off the phone with Stefan Milkowski, the guy that wrote the arcticle and he gave me some info. Here is the Denali Borough website for you guys to do some follow up and to make a contact.
http://www.denaliborough.govoffice.com/
Here is the meeting and location:
Denali Borough Assembly Work Session, Public Hearing and Regular Meeting
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Location: McKinley Park Community Center
Denali, AK

I was told that the Mayor of the Borough would be the guy to talk to.

The area in question
Go to this site and click on the little cameras on the picture and you can get a look at the wheeling opportunities in this area.
http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/proj...efault.htm

Looks to me like just a flat lying area...it would require alot of work to make it park-worthy...more than just tree-clearing. Lots of cat work to move the earth around....probably some drainage modifications to keep it from swamping out....it looks like there's potential for alot of muskeg out there. We'd need some close-up pictures/ground-truth to figure out what exactly is out there as what we see from 5000feet up is alot different from what we encounter on the ground with our vehicles...but that area sees alot of glacier/runoff from the north side of the Alaska range so I expect alot of mud and gravel. I'd like to see any geological surveying that's happened out there.

Now, if they cut some trails to the south up onto that ridge overlooking the Denali park boundary, that may get interesting. I may have my badarse forest trail yet!

Last I heard this was to keep us and others from getting as far back as you can now. Right now there is a way to wheeling into the park from the back-side and it's legal, but not spoke of. This plan has been in the works for a few years and like I said last time it came up it was to limit the access that we have now, but make it more open for others. Just watch what you do with this it might set us back rather then stepping forward.

Also ORV in Alaska is used in place of ATV which in most cases will not include our user group.

Better reason for Arctic to get involved. More than likely something will happen with this area and it would be better to be involved and have a vboice than to sit back and get the shaft without any lube.

I hope Nenana sees this idea taking off and gets their act together.

Quote: Better reason for Arctic to get involved. More than likely something will happen with this area and it would be better to be involved and have a vboice than to sit back and get the shaft without any lube.

I agree. Better to act then to react (to anothers action). Take the bull by the horns, get into bed with these folks and get this ironed out.

Heck, I couldn't even find this post again, although I see why it's still here. Thanks Dusty. As the president says, we need to take the bulls by the horn and have our voice heard. I am willing to take some time off as well to go down. I hope that others will see the need and make a small sacrifice for our hobby.

I don't want to get all committee crazy, but this one may need one. I say first, an AO official should contact the mayor and see what their plans are and then we can make a plan of action. Let's not wait around though, get your leave slips in to support the club and our sport. I also will volunteer a rig to get us down there, but 6 would be a somewhat tight squeeze for a 6 hour round trip.

Nate...PM'd ya!

We should also sticky this in the open forum so it doesn't get pushed down and out of sight!

I emailed the mayor of the Denali borough and stated our interest in participating. I expected a response by the end of this week, but it is a holiday week and he may easily be on vacation like many. I will call him personally on Tuesday, but I don't want to appear too pushy. I'm attending regardless of his response(s), I can take the 04 Dodge if there are enough people to warrant it. I don't anticipate warm temperatures, so let's make sure our transport puts out heat when it's cold outside! :p

Bump!

FYI
The mayor still hasn't responded. I am going to call him tomorrow and speak with him. I still plan on attending.

I'm not part of AO, and I cant make this, but I would like to put my .02 in there...

First off, the Stampede is a well known area. Maybe by the locals alone, but a lot of people know it's there. Currently, it's open to just about anything. There is very little private land back there, and the little there is, the owners arent too picky as long as you respect them. I read a post that said it's a way to wheel into the park without anyone knowing? Thats BS. I lived on the Stampede for nearly a year, and I know that the park boundries are patroled by rangers. I have seen them on ATV's, trucks, helicopters, and planes. If you are caught within the defined park boundries with a motor vehicle, they will arrest you, and impound your vehicle. Even though the Stampede goes quite a ways in before you hit park boundries, it does cross into the park near the airstrip. This is marked off, and they do patrol it. I dont like the idea of the road being developed as another access for the park, but I also dont like the idea of restricting use to it. There are quite a few good places to wheel. As for the make-up of the trail...

Mile 1 - Mile 4 = Pavement
Mile 5 - Mile 8 = Hardpack
Mile 8 - Mile 12 = Easy 4x4 trail. Can get tricky when extremely wet.
Mile 12 - 18 = Moderate 4x4 trail with creek crossings, rocky sections, and side trails.
Mile 13 - 14 = Mud Bogs. AKX wouldnt attempt it with 44" boggers. I have only seen hikers, ATV's and moose buggies past this point.
Mile 15 = Teklanika River. Deep and fast in Spring, medium and fast in the summer, shallow and slower in the fall.
Mile 16 - 18 = Pretty flat, not much to look at. Easy going.
Mile 19 = Savage River. Deep and fast all the time. You can hike (not drive) about a mile up or down stream and find where it braids out, but you still need to be roped off, and use the buddy system.

After the Savage, the trail turns into beaver ponds for a few miles. Unpassable by anything but well built buggies, ATV, hikers, things like that. Then the trail flattens out to a small country road, minus the pavement. I havent been that far back yet, but I am told that it's easy to hike. My miles could be off, but thats a pretty good rundown.

As far as side trails branching off, everything loops back to the Stampede because it's surrounded on all sides by the park. (Again, dont try and wheel in the park.) There are a lot of bogs, a LOT of muskeg, and a lot to explore. There is only one road in, one road out. There is one air strip back there owned by AKDOT, maintained by the state. Alaska Travel Adventures runs a Jeep tour out to mile 12.3. They also set up a remote camp out there to feed guests, and house one idiot. (That was me for a year.)

All in all, it's a great place to explore, and developement will kill that. The locals dont mind people going out there, but they dont want any crap in their neighborhood. There are a lot of good people out there. Most of them hate the Jeeps, but I have become good friends with a lot of them. I can see both sides of the fence, but when you are dealing with people who move to these remote locations to get away from it all, you are fighting a strong group of people. And again, dont try and wheel in the park. If I were to see someone out there, I dont care if they had an AO, AKX, Ak4x4Net sticker, I would call them in, because they know it's wrong, and they still did it. The Stampede is a very delicate topic with the locals, and losing access is a lot closer than people might think. Anyhow, good luck at the meeting guys, I wish I could be there for this one. I love that area more than anywhere I have been in Alaska.

Thanks for the very good info.

ChevyKev Wrote:Thanks for the very good info.

Any questions specific to the Stampede anyone might have, feel free to shoot me a PM. I know that area like the back of my hand. And, knowing me, I will be back there in about 4 months...

:nerd:

Everyone made it back to Kelly's ok and there were many people there that liked what we were saying.

Worked out way better then we had hoped.

Good stuff!
Thanks for going guys. I if didn't have class/devotional Wednesday PM I would have been there.

as elluded to previously, the resolution by the assembly was to leave Stampede trail open to roadless unlimited weight class vehicle and personal recreation.
That is a small win for us. Thanks to quick thinking by Eric and Kelly, AO was the singular fuel for the assembly to ammend their initial resolution to include the unlimited weight class vehicle portion to ensure we get past the old 1500 pound rule that is in effect on some lands.
Arctic Offroad was represented well last night although the night was long, we showed a good and professional presence in the community with myself, our President Kelly, and Eric from Holeproof Ind. giving personal testimonies of why this trail system neds to remain open and spoke for several minutes with the current mayor of Healy about how leaving this trail open to AO could benefit both the trail and the community. The conversation ended with a partnership between the two parties and now the mayor has tools of knowledge t go down to Juneau to help him fight for what he believes is right.
Well done crew! Next step is the state legislature. NOw we need the support of the AO community to back up the promise of support that we represented you for.